Monday Motivation
June 28th, 2010 | 
Author: 
I’m starting to think that I need to change the heading of these weekly posts to something other than Monday Motivation because I always seem to write something that doesn’t quite fit the motivational category.
Anyway, this week’s post is intended to help you write better and more achievable objectives.
Are your Objectives SMART?
Research tells us that clear objectives with effective ways to measure them means that objectives are easier to achieve. Different studies give different successful results, but all the evidence seems to point to
Specific objectives + ways to Measure them + can you Achieve them + are they Relevant + is there a Time frame= increased chance of successful attainment of objectives
The acronym SMART is a well known term and a term I come across constantly and I have found that the concept of making objectives SMART is deceptively simple. Whether you are preparing personal or business objectives, my advise to you would be to take enough time to work through the process of developing your objectives and applying SMART principles – don’t just throw stuff at it.
SMART drives you to make sure that all objectives are:
- Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve
- Measureable: Can your objective be measured?
- Achievable: Is your objective possible?
- Relevant: Make sure your objective is relevant
- Time-bounded: Identify an achievable completion date
A couple of things to keep in mind when applying SMART:
- If you can’t find a way to measure your objective, you may not have identified the objective, but may have written down what you will do in order to achieve an objective – in other words, you’ve written down an action.
- Make sure you write down what you what you want to achieve, not what you are going to do in order to achieve your objective
- It really is important to make sure that your objective is relevant to whatever your task or plan is. We often get sidetracked or have personal interest in a business project which really is not relevant to the success of the project / plan
- There are some words and terms that you need to avoid – develop / liaise with / contribute to / represent /increase understanding of / etc …. they sound good and you will come across other objectives that have these words in and they may read well, but these are simply words without a measureable outcome
Progress is usually what you want you want to achieve by setting objectives, so give yourself the best possible chance to achieve your objectives.
I first read about SMART many years ago when I was studying in Management by Objectives written by Peter Drucker and it is one of the management concepts that has remained credible and accepted. I see that there is now a “Classic Drucker Collection” comprising “Essential Drucker“, “The Effective Executive” and “The Practice of Management“.
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Tags: 28 June 2010, Achievable, achieve objectives, Are your Objectives SMART?, Classic Drucker Collection, complete objectives, Essential Drucker, Management by Objectives, Measureable, Monday motivation, Objectives, Peter Drucker, Progress, Relevant, Specific, The Effective Executive, The Practice of Management, Time-Bound
I wish I could write like you as Margaret Laurence once said “When I say “work” I only mean writing. Everything else is just odd jobs.”
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